“Common abbreviation for Goober with Firewall”. A
luser who has equipped his desktop computer with a
hypersensitive “software firewall” or host intrusion detection
program, and who gives its alerts absolute credence. ISP tech support and
abuse desks dread hearing from such persons, who insist that every packet
of abnormal traffic the software detects is “a hacker” (sic)
and, occasionally, threatening lawsuits or prosecution. GWFs have been
known to assert that they are being attacked from 127.0.0.1, and that their
ISP is criminally negligent for failing to block these attacks.
“GWF” is used similarly to ID10T error
and PEBKAC to flag trouble tickets opened by such
users.